Keep the Change, You Filthy Animal 1/2
Title: Keep the Change, You Filthy Animal
Pairing: Demi/Selena
Rating: PG13
Chapter: 1/2
Word Count: 4312
Summary: 1930s AU. Title from the All Time Low song and loosely inspired by that line in Home Alone.
Author's Note: So, I feel like I've been gone awile, but I thought all of you should know that has less to do with me being a flake and more to do with RL issues, like a death in the family, my mom's car getting repossessed, my sister moving back in with us (b/c she's getting a divorce), etc. :(
Hopefully this sort of makes up for some of my absense. Also I did do plenty of research on the 1930s, but if anyone finds anything inaccurate historically or even a grammatical mistake, feel free to point it out. Part 2 up tomorrow.
Keep the Change, You Filthy Animal
She and her Mama have always gotten by alone, just barely, but they have. They're fine with that. Selena's never been the kinda girl that wanted or needed the finer things. She doesn’t mind working at the flower shop all day with meager wages, because her Mama’s been working at Minnie’s Diner since she was a girl, too. Maybe, it means her Mama had her too young, and she did, but Selena likes to thing it’s got more to do with them being hard workers.
Not even the stock market crashing changes much of their lives. Business gets pretty bad, but they’re no strangers to going to bed with growling stomachs. They’ve long since learned to talk themselves to sleep over the sound of their own hunger. Things get worse, though. More people lose their jobs and not even the government can help them all.
Selena doesn’t think they’ll be able to get by much longer until Mr. Teefey strolls into Minnie's. When her Mama comes home that first night, tired and smiling, Selena's sure it's the happiest her Mama's been in a while. No matter how many times Mama calls her Daddy a lazy, good-for-nothing, scoundrel; Selena knows she misses him or at least the idea of him. She never says it, but Selena knows. It’s clear in the way her Mama sighs at the sight of other families, whole families, before she starts talking about how we’re better off.
Sometimes Selena doesn’t think so. Especially when they start feeling faint from hunger and Mama keeps looking worriedly at their near empty money tin.
Mr. Teefey, Brian as her Mama calls him, changes things. Her Mama says he's the handsomest man she's ever seen and the last thing she expected was for him to take a shining to her.
Brian says he works at some Mickey-Mouse radio station, but Selena's not sure she believes him. Lots of places have been closing down and money's scarce these days, has been since the stock market crashed a few years back. Logic tells her that he can't make an honest living at a Mickey-Mouse radio station and afford the finely pressed suits he always wears. Not to mention all the flowers, food, and tokens he's always bringing into their tiny apartment.
There is something honest about him, though. Selena's sure the way he feels about her Mama is the only honest thing about him, so she says nothing, even with the inkling suspicion that he's involved with all sorts of unsavory characters. Ignorance is bliss, and if ignorance is going to keep him looking at her Mama with stars in his eyes and ruffling her hair, like her Daddy never did, then it's worth it.
..............
"So, Sel, you still suspicious about that Brian character your Mama's seeing?"
Selena sighs at the gentle prodding. It's all she and Jen have been talking about, since the moment she brought up her suspicions. The topic should have been exhausted considering the long hours they spend in and out of Waverly Flower Shop, but she doesn't stop thinking about it, which naturally turns the topic to Brian. "It's not that I don't approve, Jen. He's just," she pauses thoughtfully, pulling her lower lip between her teeth.
"Too good to be true," Jen finishes solemnly.
Before, she can answer the telltale sound of the front door opening and the answering bell chime resounds in the shop.
Selena straightens at the clack of heels and shiny polished boots. As the couple ventures further into the store and her eyes start to really take in the customers, she smoothes her worn dress self-consciously.
These two are far from the sorts of folk that usually venture into this part of town. Usually, their customers are somewhere along the lines of young men buying flowers for their sweethearts or wives and mothers buying flowers to spruce up their house, but always, and she means always, people that have to scrimp and save for a bouquet. The two people in front of her are certainly used to the finer things.
Clothes, new and pressed, clearly tailored, go well with the young man’s, a handsome dark-haired fellow, watch, and the string of pearls along the girl’s neck. They look like the sort of people she sees in the pictures, not customers in their humble shop.
Surprisingly it’s the girl that steps up to the counter, offering Selena a smile with lips painted a violent red, and she feels her mouth open.
She’s even lovelier up close.
When she doesn’t speak, the girl’s smile turns up even more, and she laughs lightly, controlled and demure and so unlike when she and Jennifer do, that heat floods her cheeks. The girl’s laughter dies off and she raises her eyebrows pointedly. Customer, she reminds herself mentally.
“Welcome,” Selena chirps, plastering a smile she knows will never be as bright as the one opposite her onto her face. “I’m Selena, how can I help you, Miss?”
Opposite her, the girl’s eyes flutter shut, her teeth sinking into her bottom lip, looking like she’s bitten it to bleed with her red lipstick. When her eyes open, they’re a little hazy in a way that makes Selena’s smile falter and her stomach knot. Her teeth unlatch from her lip, leaving that bottom lip plumper and impossibly redder.
Selena swallows with difficulty, tapping her fingers anxiously along the counter.
“Well, Selena, I’d like to purchase some flowers.”
“Uh, what kind of flowers would you like?” Selena questions finally.
At her question, the girl’s smile turns to silk, soft and appealing. “I’m not sure exactly,” she says smoothly and it’s then Selena notices that she’s got one hand on the counter, not a centimeter away from her own restless fingers. Selena turns alarmed to Jen, who has decided to feign busyness in favor of helping her.
Jen, eyes wide and equally alarmed, shrugs, before making motions to just handle it.
“Well,” she starts slowly, discreetly slipping her hands off the counter. “Who are they for?”
“Let’s just say they’re for someone special.”
Behind them the gentleman snorts, crossing his arms, and inadvertently wrinkling the sleeves to his suit.
Selena can’t help but wonder as she thinks of what to say, if this girl is the sort of lady that buys flowers for other ladies, and not as housewarming gifts either. It’s a thought that incites both her nerves and her curiosity.
“Well, most people buying flowers for a special someone,” she stumbles on the words, cheeks flushing at the thoughts that race through her mind, “prefer red roses or even pink on occasion.”
The other girl nods slowly in agreement, tapping her lips with the index finger of her free hand. “Yes, I suppose they do, but what about you? What sort of flowers would you like to receive from an admirer?”
She notices the young man shake his head in apparent exasperation, sliding his glasses from his eyes to rub the bridge of his nose. It’s then Selena’s hit by a rather ominous feeling regarding the other girl’s intentions. “Personally, I’m rather fond of yellow roses,” she mumbles, figuring that being honest wouldn’t do any real harm.
“A dozen, yellow roses it is,” she murmurs, lips curling in undeniable satisfaction.
Luckily, Jen handles the rest of the sale, rushing forward with a radiant bouquet, allowing her to hide in the back room.
She only leaves her safe haven several seconds after the door’s bell signals their exit and Jen bursts through the door, wide-eyed and ready to gossip about the whole encounter. For a moment as she steps through the door, she doesn’t focus on Jen, who looks like her day has been made, but at the final glimpse she gets of the pair.
The girl turns towards her, chestnut hair aglow with the mid-afternoon sun, and offers her a jaunty wave, before weaving her arm through the crook of her companion’s elbow.
They’re finally gone and she sinks into a stool behind the counter in a mixture of relief and disbelief.
“Wow,” Jen whispers, plopping down beside her and twirling her copper hair through her fingers. “Can you believe people like that just walked into our shop? Oh, and what about that lady? Goodness, I’d swear she was sweet on you,” she continues, sounding a little scandalized and even more thrilled.
“As strange as she was that’s preposterous,” Selena says finally. “Clearly we need to find some more girls to spend time with if we think a girl’s sweet on me, because she bought my favorite flowers.”
Beside her, Jen’s lips turn down into a slighted frown, and she bumps her in the shoulder good-naturedly as they settle down to handle the rest of their shift.
……………
By the time Selena’s making her way up the stairs to the apartment, her legs making familiar protests, the world’s lit only by the sun’s aftermath, a few struggling rays of light and color. It’s all that lights the hallway, because their landlord’s too cheap to turn the hallway lights until it is black as charcoal and people only make it back to their apartments through their bodies’ memories. That light’s just enough to see a glimmer of what looks like faded sunshine until she steps closer.
Flowers.
Yellow roses to be exact.
She opens the door, picking up the vase left on their doorstep and flicking on the light switch as she steps through the door. The vase is placed carefully on the kitchen table.
Shrugging off her coat absently, her eyes don’t leave the roses. Brian usually hand delivers flowers to her mother and they’re never yellow roses. They’re just about every other color and flower, but not the ones that symbolize friendship, considering he means anything but friendship when it comes to her Mama.
Brows furrowed in confusion, Selena steps up to the table, riffling through the arrangement until her fingers brush paper. Tugging the slip of paper free, her eyes widen in surprise as she reads her name in flowing script at the top. An equally embellished ‘D’ graces the bottom right of the paper, but it’s otherwise empty.
Her thumb runs absently over the ‘D’ on the fine paper as she runs through the names of any of the boys she knows, ones that aren’t already going steady with other girls and comes up with nothing. “Huh,” she mumbles, flopping into a chair.
Who would buy her yellow roses?
For an instant her mind flashes to a dark-eyed girl and lips curled in satisfaction, and she squeaks, pressing a hand to her mouth. She quickly stops entertaining the thought; it’s ridiculous, and she’s not about to invite the idea of being wooed by another girl to take root into her mind. They’d only just met and she’d never even caught the other girl’s name. Never mind how she got a hold of the address…or the girl part. That’s another issue she really doesn’t want to touch.
Her heart sinks, just a little, as her common sense overrides the childish fancy of excitement a girl like her could’ve brought into Selena’s life. With a sigh, she traces a feather soft petal wistfully.
……………
The other girl should’ve passed through her mind like wind along the beach, pleasant but fleeting.
Only she shows up again. This time she’s on the arm of curly haired fellow with a closed mouth smile and equally fine clothes. Jen’s elbow digs into her side as they step up to the counter.
“Hi, it’s Selena, isn’t it?” There’s a twinkle in this girl’s eyes that gives Selena a feeling that the question’s just a formality, that there’s no way she’s really unsure of Selena’s name.
“Hello again,” her voice cracks and the twinkle gets brighter.
“I’d like another dozen, yellow roses if it’s not too much trouble.” She smiles winsomely then and Selena feels more than sees Jen set about getting the order done.
Beside her, the gentleman begins to chuckle until the other girl tears her eyes off Selena’s. “Demi,” he says laughingly.
“What,” she questions, looking entirely unamused by the interruption.
“You’re doing it wrong.” She raises a refined eyebrow, looking as lost in the conversion as Selena feels. “Subtlety,” he continues, laughing louder as her cheeks begin to match her lips and she raps her knuckles sharply against his chest.
Selena feels awkward then, even more than that time she saw her Mama and Brian all caught up in each other on the couch.
Behind her Jen makes a noise of surprise that’s poorly covered up with a cough and Selena thinks Jen’s lucky to be working at a flower shop. If she were an actress trying to play an ignorant flower girl, not at all aware of this Demi character’s motives, she’d have been fired pretty quickly.
Selena’s cheeks haven’t even begun to cool by the time she’s handling the cash register, Demi on the side, looks only a slightly ruffled by her companion’s comment, and for a moment, she admires the other girl’s control. Their hands brush across the divide of the counter and Selena’s heart jumps beneath her chest.
“Have a nice day,” she mumbles, ducking until her bangs fall down over her eyes.
“And to you as well,” Demi whispers softly, before Selena hears the clack of shoes across the linoleum and the bell chiming.
“Still think she’s not sweet on you,” Jen jokes, nudging her.
“I’ll let you know for sure tomorrow,” she replies, wondering if she’s going to find her doorstep occupied today as well.
“Huh, what’s tomorrow got to do with anything, Selena? You think she’ll show up tomorrow, too?”
“Last week, that day she stopped by, I got home to a dozen yellow roses on my doorstep,” Selena explains, turning to take in Jen’s look of shock.
“Really,” Jen questions, leaning closer as if to read any lies within her eyes.
“You haven’t even heard the best part,” she chuckles dryly. Jen leans closer. “The person signed with only a letter D.”
“Get out,” Jen hisses through her grin. Her head tilts back as she begins laughing.
“I’m glad you find the whole situation amusing,” Selena says wryly.
“Oh, but isn’t it,” Jen gasps. “We’ve never even met any girls who prefer…other girls, and now one’s completely enamored by you.” Selena’s arms cross as she shakes her head at Jen’s fresh bout of laughter. “Hey, at least there’s a bright side.”
“And what’s that?”
“Someone’s taken an interest in you. For some reason Dan’s friends all cancel on you, which is strange considering you’re quite the looker and they always sound so enthused when they first agree. At least if a boy won’t stick it out to a first date, you can settle for being on the arm of some rich broad.”
Selena laughs, choked and half-spluttered, suddenly remembering why Jen’s always been such a good friend. She could find the bright side in any situation.
……………
Sure enough, Selena finds more flowers on her doorstep, and she smiles as she shakes her head, thinking of the sad state of her love life. She sets the new flowers onto the kitchen table, already crowded from the still in bloom flowers from the week before.
For a while she absently traces the ‘D’ on the new card, wondering how she’s supposed to let down a girl, as if she doesn’t have enough trouble turning down boys, much less one who isn’t used to being told no. It’d probably go one of two ways, a temper tantrum or crying. She looks forward to neither.
The click of the lock sends relief coursing through her. If there’s anything a parent is good for it is advice and perspective on just this kind of situation. Selena grins as she catches sight of her Mama with her arm threaded through Brian’s.
“Hey kid,” Brian murmurs, ruffling her hair until it’s all over her face in a way that makes her kind of love him for doing it no matter how long it takes to fix.
“Hi Brian, hi Mama,” she greets, pressing a quick kiss to her mother’s cheek.
“More flowers, sweetie?” Her Mama’s eyes narrow, lips quirking in amusement, as she nudges her daughter teasingly.
“Don’t even start, Mama. I think this is one admirer I’d best put straight quickly,” she states firmly.
Both her Mama and Brian blink at her resolute tone. “Well, what’s so terribly wrong with the poor boy that you won’t give him a chance?” Her Mama’s free hand meets her hip and Selena just knows if she doesn’t clarify, her Mama’s just going get disappointed on judging the poor ‘boy’ so quickly.
“To be fair, if she were a boy I’d probably give her a shot.” It’s the truth. Unlike most of the boys that asked her out or that Jen and Dan had attempted to set her up with, Demi didn’t seem the type to give up too easily. Confident and frightfully smooth, she’d be the sort of boy her Mama warned her she wouldn’t be able to resist.
“I told you your daughter was a looker,” Brian says finally, grinning wide and proud. “She’s so pretty she scares off most boys, so she’s left at the mercy of a brave, young lady.”
Selena ducks her head, shy as her Mama nods, agreeing, and they both begin to chuckle. “It’s not funny,” she insists, though she’s smiling as wide as they are.
“Oh, of course not, sweetie,” her Mama says in this entirely too placating tone. “Oh, is that the card.” Without waiting she plucks the slip of paper from Selena’s hands.
Selena huffs indignantly from her seat. Her Mama’s no better than Jen, entirely too eager for a little excitement in these troubled times.
“If your admirer left these on the doorstep and there’s only a letter ‘D’ signed on the card, how do you know it’s a girl?”
“She bought them at Waverly. I should’ve guessed a rich girl like her had a motive for coming to Waverly of all places to get flowers,” Selena says ruefully.
Brian clears his throat, and it’s then she notices how frighteningly pale he’s become. Tugging at his collar and a quaking mess, he looks scared. “You didn’t happen to get her name, did you?”
“The boy she was with called her Demi.” As soon as the words leave her lips, Selena wishes she could take it back.
Brian looks like he’s been punched in the gut.
He leaves soon after without any explanation, leaving her and her Mama bewildered, and just a little terrified.
……………
When the sun’s only just begun to touch the horizon, Brian’s hammering at the door.
The fear from the night before is justified, because after Brian and her Mama finish speaking heatedly at the door, her Mama turns, white as a sheet, and tells her to pack a bag. Her heart’s a jackhammer hiding beneath her chest as she fumbles for clothes and stumbles downstairs to Brian’s car. Not even her Mama’s hand, reaching back to clasp hers, is enough to settle her nerves.
They’re almost out of the city when the growls of powerful engines fill the air. Boxed in, Brian’s got no choice but to be lead away until the sounds of the city fade. Her body trembles, not unlike the overworked engine, as car doors open and slam.
She’s never been so upset to be right about something.
As a cloth is pressed over her mouth, she sees a glimpse of familiar curly hair, but has no time to dwell as the world blurs out of focus and darkens.
……………
There’s rope cutting into her wrists and ankles when she comes to. A quick look at her surroundings confirms that she’s in an office of some sort. Paying no mind to the figures in suits, talking to someone hidden in a chair behind a mahogany desk at the forefront of the room, she turns to find that thankfully her Mama and Brian are on either side of her tied to their own chairs.
“Hey Boss, your girl’s awake.”
The three suit clad figures turn to her, grinning, and she’s startled to find that they’re so young, so young and already caught up in crime. The pity lasts only as long as it takes her to figure out he was talking about her, referring to her as the Boss’s girl.
Her cheeks flame with hot indignation. “I’m nobody’s girl,” Selena hisses vehemently. As three sets of dark brows rise behind their sunglasses, before their heads all turn to the figure behind the chair, she reminds herself that death would probably be welcome to whatever being the Boss’s girl would entail.
“Not yet.” The chair does a quarter turn that still doesn’t reveal who’s sitting behind that chair, who’s in charge, but Selena doesn’t need to see. She knows that silky voice, still so fresh in her mind.
“Demi,” she whispers and the puzzle pieces start to fit within her mind. How the other girl knew where she lived, worked, Brian’s reaction to the ‘D’ and then the name Demi, even Brian’s profession. “Brian works for you,” she says solemnly.
Finally, the chair completes the turn, revealing the other girl, hair pinned elegantly to the side of her hair and lips as red as when they’d first met. “Smart girl,” she nods then, like it meets her expectations and Selena feels sick, deceived even.
“What do you want with us?”
Demi’s eyes rise at Selena’s gall, but she sighs anyway, like the question's just another chore to handle. “We wanted nothing to do with you or your mother…originally. We just wanted to find out where he was spending all his time and why he felt the need to steal from us.” Something like disappoint fills her eyes as she looks at Brian, before she shakes her head, as though to shake the thoughts from her mind.
“That was the plan until Boss got herself dizzy with a dame,” says the boy who’d first spoken.
A nod and the other two flanking her smack the one boy over the head. She winces as his head shoots forward, but his pain is fleeting, lips quirking into a smile as Demi scowls at him.
“As I was saying, Brian was betraying us. We couldn’t allow him to get away with that, so when he tried to take the two of you and run, we had to stop him. Unfortunately, that’s caused you and your mother to be dragged into the middle of all of this.” She looks slightly apologetic at this, and Selena gets that. It doesn’t change her mind about the kidnapping thing, but she gets it.
“Are you going to kill us?” Selena closes her eyes, almost praying for it, because it’d be easier to swallow than any of the other horrible crimes people can commit while someone’s still breathing.
“No.” Her heart drops. “Brian’s a good fellow, a little too caught up, but still good. We’ve also been watching the three of you. You and your Mama, you’re good people, too.” Demi’s fingers begin to tap anxiously, like she’s coming to some sort of decision.
“But, you can’t let us go,” Selena whispers when Demi’s silence stretches a little too long.
“No, I can’t, but I can make you an offer.” Selena meets Demi’s eyes again, almost forgetting to breathe as the atmosphere fills with tension thick enough to choke. “As you probably already know, I’ve taken a shine to you. If you stay with us…with me, then we’ll let them go. No bruises, no cuts, no bodies, but you stay.”
She doesn’t think about it, one glance at the people in the chairs on either side of her, and an ‘okay’ slips from her lips.
“Kevin,” Demi says quietly to a young man with wild curly hair. “Cut her loose.”
Selena doesn’t know where it comes from, but a small knife is flicked expertly around his palm as he steps forward.
“It won’t be as bad as you think,” he whispers gently, green eyes, soft and earnest as he looks up from where he’s working at the ropes. “You may share her bed, but Demi won’t force herself on you. She’s got too much integrity for that.”
“Why should I believe you or them? You’re all criminals,” she replies, wanting so much to believe him, but not letting herself hope for it.
He catches her as she slumps forward, finally free of her binding. “Even criminals have their rules. Besides I’ve never given you any reason not to believe me.” Kevin lifts her easily and she allows it without protest as her limbs, not even in use, begin to sting as the numbness fades. “Should I take her to your room, Boss?”
A single flick of her hand has Kevin walking towards the door.
“Wait,” Selena shouts, grasping Kevin’s arm to steady herself as she locks eyes with an inquisitive Demi. “Can I at least say goodbye?
Demi’s brows furrow for a moment, before she shrugs. “I don’t see why not, but until they’re awake you should get some sleep. I know for a fact being knocked out’s no picnic. In fact, Joe and Nick why don’t we get Brian and Mandy out of those chairs. Set’em up in a room and keep watch over it.” Demi smiles reassuringly at her as Joe and Nick get to work.
As Kevin starts walking again, Selena fights the urge to beg them to let her watch. Let her make sure Demi’ll keep her word, but she reminds herself of Kevin’s earlier words.
The minute they break her trust, Selena’s plans to cut and run, but until then she’ll try to make the best of it, like her Mama’s always taught her to.
Pairing: Demi/Selena
Rating: PG13
Chapter: 1/2
Word Count: 4312
Summary: 1930s AU. Title from the All Time Low song and loosely inspired by that line in Home Alone.
Author's Note: So, I feel like I've been gone awile, but I thought all of you should know that has less to do with me being a flake and more to do with RL issues, like a death in the family, my mom's car getting repossessed, my sister moving back in with us (b/c she's getting a divorce), etc. :(
Hopefully this sort of makes up for some of my absense. Also I did do plenty of research on the 1930s, but if anyone finds anything inaccurate historically or even a grammatical mistake, feel free to point it out. Part 2 up tomorrow.
Keep the Change, You Filthy Animal
She and her Mama have always gotten by alone, just barely, but they have. They're fine with that. Selena's never been the kinda girl that wanted or needed the finer things. She doesn’t mind working at the flower shop all day with meager wages, because her Mama’s been working at Minnie’s Diner since she was a girl, too. Maybe, it means her Mama had her too young, and she did, but Selena likes to thing it’s got more to do with them being hard workers.
Not even the stock market crashing changes much of their lives. Business gets pretty bad, but they’re no strangers to going to bed with growling stomachs. They’ve long since learned to talk themselves to sleep over the sound of their own hunger. Things get worse, though. More people lose their jobs and not even the government can help them all.
Selena doesn’t think they’ll be able to get by much longer until Mr. Teefey strolls into Minnie's. When her Mama comes home that first night, tired and smiling, Selena's sure it's the happiest her Mama's been in a while. No matter how many times Mama calls her Daddy a lazy, good-for-nothing, scoundrel; Selena knows she misses him or at least the idea of him. She never says it, but Selena knows. It’s clear in the way her Mama sighs at the sight of other families, whole families, before she starts talking about how we’re better off.
Sometimes Selena doesn’t think so. Especially when they start feeling faint from hunger and Mama keeps looking worriedly at their near empty money tin.
Mr. Teefey, Brian as her Mama calls him, changes things. Her Mama says he's the handsomest man she's ever seen and the last thing she expected was for him to take a shining to her.
Brian says he works at some Mickey-Mouse radio station, but Selena's not sure she believes him. Lots of places have been closing down and money's scarce these days, has been since the stock market crashed a few years back. Logic tells her that he can't make an honest living at a Mickey-Mouse radio station and afford the finely pressed suits he always wears. Not to mention all the flowers, food, and tokens he's always bringing into their tiny apartment.
There is something honest about him, though. Selena's sure the way he feels about her Mama is the only honest thing about him, so she says nothing, even with the inkling suspicion that he's involved with all sorts of unsavory characters. Ignorance is bliss, and if ignorance is going to keep him looking at her Mama with stars in his eyes and ruffling her hair, like her Daddy never did, then it's worth it.
..............
"So, Sel, you still suspicious about that Brian character your Mama's seeing?"
Selena sighs at the gentle prodding. It's all she and Jen have been talking about, since the moment she brought up her suspicions. The topic should have been exhausted considering the long hours they spend in and out of Waverly Flower Shop, but she doesn't stop thinking about it, which naturally turns the topic to Brian. "It's not that I don't approve, Jen. He's just," she pauses thoughtfully, pulling her lower lip between her teeth.
"Too good to be true," Jen finishes solemnly.
Before, she can answer the telltale sound of the front door opening and the answering bell chime resounds in the shop.
Selena straightens at the clack of heels and shiny polished boots. As the couple ventures further into the store and her eyes start to really take in the customers, she smoothes her worn dress self-consciously.
These two are far from the sorts of folk that usually venture into this part of town. Usually, their customers are somewhere along the lines of young men buying flowers for their sweethearts or wives and mothers buying flowers to spruce up their house, but always, and she means always, people that have to scrimp and save for a bouquet. The two people in front of her are certainly used to the finer things.
Clothes, new and pressed, clearly tailored, go well with the young man’s, a handsome dark-haired fellow, watch, and the string of pearls along the girl’s neck. They look like the sort of people she sees in the pictures, not customers in their humble shop.
Surprisingly it’s the girl that steps up to the counter, offering Selena a smile with lips painted a violent red, and she feels her mouth open.
She’s even lovelier up close.
When she doesn’t speak, the girl’s smile turns up even more, and she laughs lightly, controlled and demure and so unlike when she and Jennifer do, that heat floods her cheeks. The girl’s laughter dies off and she raises her eyebrows pointedly. Customer, she reminds herself mentally.
“Welcome,” Selena chirps, plastering a smile she knows will never be as bright as the one opposite her onto her face. “I’m Selena, how can I help you, Miss?”
Opposite her, the girl’s eyes flutter shut, her teeth sinking into her bottom lip, looking like she’s bitten it to bleed with her red lipstick. When her eyes open, they’re a little hazy in a way that makes Selena’s smile falter and her stomach knot. Her teeth unlatch from her lip, leaving that bottom lip plumper and impossibly redder.
Selena swallows with difficulty, tapping her fingers anxiously along the counter.
“Well, Selena, I’d like to purchase some flowers.”
“Uh, what kind of flowers would you like?” Selena questions finally.
At her question, the girl’s smile turns to silk, soft and appealing. “I’m not sure exactly,” she says smoothly and it’s then Selena notices that she’s got one hand on the counter, not a centimeter away from her own restless fingers. Selena turns alarmed to Jen, who has decided to feign busyness in favor of helping her.
Jen, eyes wide and equally alarmed, shrugs, before making motions to just handle it.
“Well,” she starts slowly, discreetly slipping her hands off the counter. “Who are they for?”
“Let’s just say they’re for someone special.”
Behind them the gentleman snorts, crossing his arms, and inadvertently wrinkling the sleeves to his suit.
Selena can’t help but wonder as she thinks of what to say, if this girl is the sort of lady that buys flowers for other ladies, and not as housewarming gifts either. It’s a thought that incites both her nerves and her curiosity.
“Well, most people buying flowers for a special someone,” she stumbles on the words, cheeks flushing at the thoughts that race through her mind, “prefer red roses or even pink on occasion.”
The other girl nods slowly in agreement, tapping her lips with the index finger of her free hand. “Yes, I suppose they do, but what about you? What sort of flowers would you like to receive from an admirer?”
She notices the young man shake his head in apparent exasperation, sliding his glasses from his eyes to rub the bridge of his nose. It’s then Selena’s hit by a rather ominous feeling regarding the other girl’s intentions. “Personally, I’m rather fond of yellow roses,” she mumbles, figuring that being honest wouldn’t do any real harm.
“A dozen, yellow roses it is,” she murmurs, lips curling in undeniable satisfaction.
Luckily, Jen handles the rest of the sale, rushing forward with a radiant bouquet, allowing her to hide in the back room.
She only leaves her safe haven several seconds after the door’s bell signals their exit and Jen bursts through the door, wide-eyed and ready to gossip about the whole encounter. For a moment as she steps through the door, she doesn’t focus on Jen, who looks like her day has been made, but at the final glimpse she gets of the pair.
The girl turns towards her, chestnut hair aglow with the mid-afternoon sun, and offers her a jaunty wave, before weaving her arm through the crook of her companion’s elbow.
They’re finally gone and she sinks into a stool behind the counter in a mixture of relief and disbelief.
“Wow,” Jen whispers, plopping down beside her and twirling her copper hair through her fingers. “Can you believe people like that just walked into our shop? Oh, and what about that lady? Goodness, I’d swear she was sweet on you,” she continues, sounding a little scandalized and even more thrilled.
“As strange as she was that’s preposterous,” Selena says finally. “Clearly we need to find some more girls to spend time with if we think a girl’s sweet on me, because she bought my favorite flowers.”
Beside her, Jen’s lips turn down into a slighted frown, and she bumps her in the shoulder good-naturedly as they settle down to handle the rest of their shift.
……………
By the time Selena’s making her way up the stairs to the apartment, her legs making familiar protests, the world’s lit only by the sun’s aftermath, a few struggling rays of light and color. It’s all that lights the hallway, because their landlord’s too cheap to turn the hallway lights until it is black as charcoal and people only make it back to their apartments through their bodies’ memories. That light’s just enough to see a glimmer of what looks like faded sunshine until she steps closer.
Flowers.
Yellow roses to be exact.
She opens the door, picking up the vase left on their doorstep and flicking on the light switch as she steps through the door. The vase is placed carefully on the kitchen table.
Shrugging off her coat absently, her eyes don’t leave the roses. Brian usually hand delivers flowers to her mother and they’re never yellow roses. They’re just about every other color and flower, but not the ones that symbolize friendship, considering he means anything but friendship when it comes to her Mama.
Brows furrowed in confusion, Selena steps up to the table, riffling through the arrangement until her fingers brush paper. Tugging the slip of paper free, her eyes widen in surprise as she reads her name in flowing script at the top. An equally embellished ‘D’ graces the bottom right of the paper, but it’s otherwise empty.
Her thumb runs absently over the ‘D’ on the fine paper as she runs through the names of any of the boys she knows, ones that aren’t already going steady with other girls and comes up with nothing. “Huh,” she mumbles, flopping into a chair.
Who would buy her yellow roses?
For an instant her mind flashes to a dark-eyed girl and lips curled in satisfaction, and she squeaks, pressing a hand to her mouth. She quickly stops entertaining the thought; it’s ridiculous, and she’s not about to invite the idea of being wooed by another girl to take root into her mind. They’d only just met and she’d never even caught the other girl’s name. Never mind how she got a hold of the address…or the girl part. That’s another issue she really doesn’t want to touch.
Her heart sinks, just a little, as her common sense overrides the childish fancy of excitement a girl like her could’ve brought into Selena’s life. With a sigh, she traces a feather soft petal wistfully.
……………
The other girl should’ve passed through her mind like wind along the beach, pleasant but fleeting.
Only she shows up again. This time she’s on the arm of curly haired fellow with a closed mouth smile and equally fine clothes. Jen’s elbow digs into her side as they step up to the counter.
“Hi, it’s Selena, isn’t it?” There’s a twinkle in this girl’s eyes that gives Selena a feeling that the question’s just a formality, that there’s no way she’s really unsure of Selena’s name.
“Hello again,” her voice cracks and the twinkle gets brighter.
“I’d like another dozen, yellow roses if it’s not too much trouble.” She smiles winsomely then and Selena feels more than sees Jen set about getting the order done.
Beside her, the gentleman begins to chuckle until the other girl tears her eyes off Selena’s. “Demi,” he says laughingly.
“What,” she questions, looking entirely unamused by the interruption.
“You’re doing it wrong.” She raises a refined eyebrow, looking as lost in the conversion as Selena feels. “Subtlety,” he continues, laughing louder as her cheeks begin to match her lips and she raps her knuckles sharply against his chest.
Selena feels awkward then, even more than that time she saw her Mama and Brian all caught up in each other on the couch.
Behind her Jen makes a noise of surprise that’s poorly covered up with a cough and Selena thinks Jen’s lucky to be working at a flower shop. If she were an actress trying to play an ignorant flower girl, not at all aware of this Demi character’s motives, she’d have been fired pretty quickly.
Selena’s cheeks haven’t even begun to cool by the time she’s handling the cash register, Demi on the side, looks only a slightly ruffled by her companion’s comment, and for a moment, she admires the other girl’s control. Their hands brush across the divide of the counter and Selena’s heart jumps beneath her chest.
“Have a nice day,” she mumbles, ducking until her bangs fall down over her eyes.
“And to you as well,” Demi whispers softly, before Selena hears the clack of shoes across the linoleum and the bell chiming.
“Still think she’s not sweet on you,” Jen jokes, nudging her.
“I’ll let you know for sure tomorrow,” she replies, wondering if she’s going to find her doorstep occupied today as well.
“Huh, what’s tomorrow got to do with anything, Selena? You think she’ll show up tomorrow, too?”
“Last week, that day she stopped by, I got home to a dozen yellow roses on my doorstep,” Selena explains, turning to take in Jen’s look of shock.
“Really,” Jen questions, leaning closer as if to read any lies within her eyes.
“You haven’t even heard the best part,” she chuckles dryly. Jen leans closer. “The person signed with only a letter D.”
“Get out,” Jen hisses through her grin. Her head tilts back as she begins laughing.
“I’m glad you find the whole situation amusing,” Selena says wryly.
“Oh, but isn’t it,” Jen gasps. “We’ve never even met any girls who prefer…other girls, and now one’s completely enamored by you.” Selena’s arms cross as she shakes her head at Jen’s fresh bout of laughter. “Hey, at least there’s a bright side.”
“And what’s that?”
“Someone’s taken an interest in you. For some reason Dan’s friends all cancel on you, which is strange considering you’re quite the looker and they always sound so enthused when they first agree. At least if a boy won’t stick it out to a first date, you can settle for being on the arm of some rich broad.”
Selena laughs, choked and half-spluttered, suddenly remembering why Jen’s always been such a good friend. She could find the bright side in any situation.
……………
Sure enough, Selena finds more flowers on her doorstep, and she smiles as she shakes her head, thinking of the sad state of her love life. She sets the new flowers onto the kitchen table, already crowded from the still in bloom flowers from the week before.
For a while she absently traces the ‘D’ on the new card, wondering how she’s supposed to let down a girl, as if she doesn’t have enough trouble turning down boys, much less one who isn’t used to being told no. It’d probably go one of two ways, a temper tantrum or crying. She looks forward to neither.
The click of the lock sends relief coursing through her. If there’s anything a parent is good for it is advice and perspective on just this kind of situation. Selena grins as she catches sight of her Mama with her arm threaded through Brian’s.
“Hey kid,” Brian murmurs, ruffling her hair until it’s all over her face in a way that makes her kind of love him for doing it no matter how long it takes to fix.
“Hi Brian, hi Mama,” she greets, pressing a quick kiss to her mother’s cheek.
“More flowers, sweetie?” Her Mama’s eyes narrow, lips quirking in amusement, as she nudges her daughter teasingly.
“Don’t even start, Mama. I think this is one admirer I’d best put straight quickly,” she states firmly.
Both her Mama and Brian blink at her resolute tone. “Well, what’s so terribly wrong with the poor boy that you won’t give him a chance?” Her Mama’s free hand meets her hip and Selena just knows if she doesn’t clarify, her Mama’s just going get disappointed on judging the poor ‘boy’ so quickly.
“To be fair, if she were a boy I’d probably give her a shot.” It’s the truth. Unlike most of the boys that asked her out or that Jen and Dan had attempted to set her up with, Demi didn’t seem the type to give up too easily. Confident and frightfully smooth, she’d be the sort of boy her Mama warned her she wouldn’t be able to resist.
“I told you your daughter was a looker,” Brian says finally, grinning wide and proud. “She’s so pretty she scares off most boys, so she’s left at the mercy of a brave, young lady.”
Selena ducks her head, shy as her Mama nods, agreeing, and they both begin to chuckle. “It’s not funny,” she insists, though she’s smiling as wide as they are.
“Oh, of course not, sweetie,” her Mama says in this entirely too placating tone. “Oh, is that the card.” Without waiting she plucks the slip of paper from Selena’s hands.
Selena huffs indignantly from her seat. Her Mama’s no better than Jen, entirely too eager for a little excitement in these troubled times.
“If your admirer left these on the doorstep and there’s only a letter ‘D’ signed on the card, how do you know it’s a girl?”
“She bought them at Waverly. I should’ve guessed a rich girl like her had a motive for coming to Waverly of all places to get flowers,” Selena says ruefully.
Brian clears his throat, and it’s then she notices how frighteningly pale he’s become. Tugging at his collar and a quaking mess, he looks scared. “You didn’t happen to get her name, did you?”
“The boy she was with called her Demi.” As soon as the words leave her lips, Selena wishes she could take it back.
Brian looks like he’s been punched in the gut.
He leaves soon after without any explanation, leaving her and her Mama bewildered, and just a little terrified.
……………
When the sun’s only just begun to touch the horizon, Brian’s hammering at the door.
The fear from the night before is justified, because after Brian and her Mama finish speaking heatedly at the door, her Mama turns, white as a sheet, and tells her to pack a bag. Her heart’s a jackhammer hiding beneath her chest as she fumbles for clothes and stumbles downstairs to Brian’s car. Not even her Mama’s hand, reaching back to clasp hers, is enough to settle her nerves.
They’re almost out of the city when the growls of powerful engines fill the air. Boxed in, Brian’s got no choice but to be lead away until the sounds of the city fade. Her body trembles, not unlike the overworked engine, as car doors open and slam.
She’s never been so upset to be right about something.
As a cloth is pressed over her mouth, she sees a glimpse of familiar curly hair, but has no time to dwell as the world blurs out of focus and darkens.
……………
There’s rope cutting into her wrists and ankles when she comes to. A quick look at her surroundings confirms that she’s in an office of some sort. Paying no mind to the figures in suits, talking to someone hidden in a chair behind a mahogany desk at the forefront of the room, she turns to find that thankfully her Mama and Brian are on either side of her tied to their own chairs.
“Hey Boss, your girl’s awake.”
The three suit clad figures turn to her, grinning, and she’s startled to find that they’re so young, so young and already caught up in crime. The pity lasts only as long as it takes her to figure out he was talking about her, referring to her as the Boss’s girl.
Her cheeks flame with hot indignation. “I’m nobody’s girl,” Selena hisses vehemently. As three sets of dark brows rise behind their sunglasses, before their heads all turn to the figure behind the chair, she reminds herself that death would probably be welcome to whatever being the Boss’s girl would entail.
“Not yet.” The chair does a quarter turn that still doesn’t reveal who’s sitting behind that chair, who’s in charge, but Selena doesn’t need to see. She knows that silky voice, still so fresh in her mind.
“Demi,” she whispers and the puzzle pieces start to fit within her mind. How the other girl knew where she lived, worked, Brian’s reaction to the ‘D’ and then the name Demi, even Brian’s profession. “Brian works for you,” she says solemnly.
Finally, the chair completes the turn, revealing the other girl, hair pinned elegantly to the side of her hair and lips as red as when they’d first met. “Smart girl,” she nods then, like it meets her expectations and Selena feels sick, deceived even.
“What do you want with us?”
Demi’s eyes rise at Selena’s gall, but she sighs anyway, like the question's just another chore to handle. “We wanted nothing to do with you or your mother…originally. We just wanted to find out where he was spending all his time and why he felt the need to steal from us.” Something like disappoint fills her eyes as she looks at Brian, before she shakes her head, as though to shake the thoughts from her mind.
“That was the plan until Boss got herself dizzy with a dame,” says the boy who’d first spoken.
A nod and the other two flanking her smack the one boy over the head. She winces as his head shoots forward, but his pain is fleeting, lips quirking into a smile as Demi scowls at him.
“As I was saying, Brian was betraying us. We couldn’t allow him to get away with that, so when he tried to take the two of you and run, we had to stop him. Unfortunately, that’s caused you and your mother to be dragged into the middle of all of this.” She looks slightly apologetic at this, and Selena gets that. It doesn’t change her mind about the kidnapping thing, but she gets it.
“Are you going to kill us?” Selena closes her eyes, almost praying for it, because it’d be easier to swallow than any of the other horrible crimes people can commit while someone’s still breathing.
“No.” Her heart drops. “Brian’s a good fellow, a little too caught up, but still good. We’ve also been watching the three of you. You and your Mama, you’re good people, too.” Demi’s fingers begin to tap anxiously, like she’s coming to some sort of decision.
“But, you can’t let us go,” Selena whispers when Demi’s silence stretches a little too long.
“No, I can’t, but I can make you an offer.” Selena meets Demi’s eyes again, almost forgetting to breathe as the atmosphere fills with tension thick enough to choke. “As you probably already know, I’ve taken a shine to you. If you stay with us…with me, then we’ll let them go. No bruises, no cuts, no bodies, but you stay.”
She doesn’t think about it, one glance at the people in the chairs on either side of her, and an ‘okay’ slips from her lips.
“Kevin,” Demi says quietly to a young man with wild curly hair. “Cut her loose.”
Selena doesn’t know where it comes from, but a small knife is flicked expertly around his palm as he steps forward.
“It won’t be as bad as you think,” he whispers gently, green eyes, soft and earnest as he looks up from where he’s working at the ropes. “You may share her bed, but Demi won’t force herself on you. She’s got too much integrity for that.”
“Why should I believe you or them? You’re all criminals,” she replies, wanting so much to believe him, but not letting herself hope for it.
He catches her as she slumps forward, finally free of her binding. “Even criminals have their rules. Besides I’ve never given you any reason not to believe me.” Kevin lifts her easily and she allows it without protest as her limbs, not even in use, begin to sting as the numbness fades. “Should I take her to your room, Boss?”
A single flick of her hand has Kevin walking towards the door.
“Wait,” Selena shouts, grasping Kevin’s arm to steady herself as she locks eyes with an inquisitive Demi. “Can I at least say goodbye?
Demi’s brows furrow for a moment, before she shrugs. “I don’t see why not, but until they’re awake you should get some sleep. I know for a fact being knocked out’s no picnic. In fact, Joe and Nick why don’t we get Brian and Mandy out of those chairs. Set’em up in a room and keep watch over it.” Demi smiles reassuringly at her as Joe and Nick get to work.
As Kevin starts walking again, Selena fights the urge to beg them to let her watch. Let her make sure Demi’ll keep her word, but she reminds herself of Kevin’s earlier words.
The minute they break her trust, Selena’s plans to cut and run, but until then she’ll try to make the best of it, like her Mama’s always taught her to.